This shop has been compensated by Schwarzkopf. #FashionColorExpert #sponsored

One of the only downfalls to traveling… is the actual traveling from Point A to Point B. I don’t care how “good” of a flier you are, airports are dreadful even at the best of times. I consider myself a pretty good traveler: pack light, easy loose fitting clothes, I’m good to go. But then I see those girls all dressed up to get on a plane and I feel so… inadequate. So, the one way I try to keep myself looking semi put together? A sweet and simple hairstyle like this one. And I think the celestial theme kind of goes hand in hand with traveling. I mean, most of us aren’t going to the moon – but we sure would like to, right?

For this post I teamed up with Schwarzkopf Color ULTÎME® to show you how I made this sweet celestial hair pin and how I keep, at least my hair looking fresh while I travel. I’m not a salon girl. I rarely get my hair cut (we’re talking once every few years) and I have a hard time convincing myself to even brush it on a consistent basis but I LOVE the color selection of Schwarzkopf Color ULTÎME®. And home dyeing your hair is just so much easier (on the wallet and the psyche!) than going into a salon. This time around I decided to give Black Cherry a try. I was eyeing a few others but in all honesty, the name won me over. Plus, I’ve been dying to try a ruby/magenta tint ever since I first saw Jaclyn Hill dye her hair a similar shade like six years ago.

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You may not be able to tell in the first photo, but the tips of my hair are so frizzy and and dry and damaged. Granted, that bedtime bun curl looks pretty good… but other than that, just no. I have had the same freaking hair style and color for at least ten years. So, it’s safe to safe I am extremely happy with this new vibrant result. Take a look at the photo of the box versus how it turned out. The color result is so true to the box it’s crazy. The photo on the right is after only towel drying my hair, no styling whatsoever and it already looks and feels healthier. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to dye my hair only to find that I get some washed out version of what’s on the box. But this one turned out fantastic and Schwarzkopf Color ULTÎME® boasts a vibrant, long lasting color and shine. So, I’m looking forward to not having to re-dye in two weeks. Like I said before, low maintenance is key for me because – well – I’m lazy.

HELPFUL HINT: If you’re like me and you look like your covered in bruises after dying your own hair (I’m not careful where the dye gets… it literally looked like my neck was covered in bruises from being choked out) all it takes is a wash cloth and DISH SOAP. You’re welcome.

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I started out this mission by heading over to my local Walmart to take a browse through this new collection. I checked out a couple of other local retailers but I found that Walmart had more options when it came to the more… eclectic colors. Halfway through the hair dye process I had to have my boyfriend run to the store to get more (I only originally bought two boxes) and we were only able to find this specific shade at Walmart.

So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty! Let’s make ourselves a beautiful Celestial Hair Pin!

Supplies:

Wire Cutters

Pliers (needle nose or round nose will work)

Metallic Gold Spray Paint

Barrettes

Star Buttons

Gold Wire (20 Gauge ish)

Crafty Glue

Star Jewels

You can find most of these supplies at your local craft store, or if you’re like me – you already had some of this lying around. Because crafts.

This first portion of this little DIY will make you question all of your artistic capabilities. But don’t overthink it. No matter how ugly and awkward it looks right now, it will all turn out alright in the end. I have a similar philosophy to eye makeup before false lashes are applied. Anyone with me? So, we’re going to take a long-ish piece of wire (nothing specific 6 – 12 inches) and loop your first button through. Make sure to twist the wire on the backside of the button to hold it in place. Then, you’re going to add random “loops” by grabbing the wire with your pliers and twisting it around the pliers like I am in the above photo. Repeat with random loops and buttons, whatever feels best. I did four buttons and god knows how many loops.

Take another long piece of wire and hook it through the little holes on either end of the barrette (but for real, why are there holes there?). I actually looped it through one hole, then through one of the buttons on my pin piece, then through the other hole. See in the below photo.

This is where you need to get creative. Attach your barrette wire to your star pin in whatever way feels most natural. Like I said, I looped the barrette wire through one of my stars and then just wrapped the two wires around each other a few times to secure (second photo).

Glue dallops everywhere!!! This is where we are going to start applying our star jewels (moons too if you’re lucky) with glue. I just put plops of glue all over the place and stuck random jewels. They will try to fall off. Use plenty of glue and then leave it somewhere to dry and harden.

Now that the physical aspect of creating the hair pin is complete, it’s time to get cray cray with the spray paint. Spray both sides and let dry. I would suggest coating both sides, letting it dry (doesn’t take too long if you’re using craft spray paint) and then do a second coat to get any areas you may have missed. Due to my lack of patience, I only did one coat and noticed later a few of the stars weren’t fully covered.

And that’s all she wrote folks! Simple as that. For some reason, I have this really strong urge to make as many as I can. But I have no idea what I would do with them. Once it’s fully dry you can change the shape by bending the wire (DO NOT TRY TO BEND IT BY GRABBING THE STARS OR MOONS – I speak from experience) to get your perfect shape. Thinking about putting my hair in a high bun and finding a way to position this underneath? What do you guys think?

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MeAndMyTea #CollectiveBias

What is so appealing about receiving a gift basket? It’s similar to the feeling I get when I receive mail, like a hand written letter that’s not a bill. Maybe it’s sifting through the gift basket items and seeing all the cute little knick knacks and treats, I have no idea. I’ve been wanting to do a DIY post for a holiday gift basket for some time now and when I got this opportunity to create a gift basket around my favorite holiday Bigelow Tea, I jumped at the idea.

Even though they offer flavors like Salted Caramel, Pumpkin Spice, Vanilla Chai (which I LOVE) and Cranberry Hibiscus – my favorite flavor that they offer is always going to be the Constant Comment. This tea is made only by members of the Bigelow family (so cool!) using the original recipe and it’s safe to say they’ve definitely mastered this one. It’s a very robust citrus black tea made with orange rinds and sweet spices that are both perfect holiday flavors. I will admit that the title of this tea turned me off at first and the only reason I ever decided to pull it off of the shelf was the awesome vintage packaging – best judgement I’ve ever made.

Now for the gift basket. It really was not hard to find cohesive pairings to include in this basket because I kind of just said okay, I’m sitting down to have a nice cup of tea – what do I want? And this is what I came up with! So here we go!

First – A Cute Basket
Try to find one that you think they will reuse either for storage or home decor.

Next – A Cute Kitchen Towel
Use said kitchen towel to line your basket. I was originally going to use the Christmas holly hand towel that I ended up putting in the basket but I wanted to also include another one for functionality. This one is cute and can be used all year round.

GOODIES!
Let’s be real. This is the best part. Fill your basket with an assortment of treats and gifts that pair nicely with the “tea” theme we’re going on here. I found most of my items at Walmart which is great because it made the contents of this basket a little more affordable which allowed me to splurge a little on the food items which I got from World Market. Here are some of the items I chose to include:

A Christmas Holly Kitchen Towel

Two cute mugs that are matte black on the outside and red on the inside – similar here

Add The Tea!
Next, add the tea! Rather than putting the whole box in my basket, I thought it would be cuter to place them into the mugs. Mostly because I love the vintage gold foil packaging on the tea bags – so adorable.

Decorate!

Finally, decorate your gift box with whatever you’d like! I used sprigs of pine, pine cones, cranberry branches and some fairy lights. Get creative with it! I think the decorations at the end are what really bring the entire gift basket together so really put some thought into it. That’s what makes the most beautiful gifts.

I’m really happy with the way my gift basket turned out and can’t wait to make another one. I think for my next gift basket I might theme it around the Salted Caramel tea also by Bigelow Tea. These are great for neighbors, teachers, host gifts or really just anyone. Because, let’s be real, if you showed up on my doorstep with this I would kiss you and love every ounce of this basket. What would you guys put into your baskets? I’d love some more ideas!

As promised, I said I would put up my super simple recipe for mini strawberry pies so here it is! These are simple, easy to add to and ready in less than a half an hour – and really, that’s my kind of recipe. I like to put in minimal effort when it comes to cooking just because I can’t be bothered to spend that long chopping away in the kitchen. So, here is my step by step recipe for fail proof strawberry (or cherry, or raspberry, or whatever else) pies!

First, on a floured surface, roll out your pie crust and chop up your fruit of choice in a bowl. I used strawberries! Once chopped, add a few scoops of the fruit preserves or jam to your chopped fruit and mix until it has… well, a pie filling consistency.

Using your cookie cutter, cut out your desired shapes. Remember you will need to “cut outs” per pie so if you want to make eight pies you need sixteen cookie cutouts.

Peel away the excess dough and brush half of your cutouts with melted butter. These buttered sides will essentially be the “top” of each pie.

You will probably need to continually reflour your working surface so that the pie dough doesn’t stick to your table. When you’re ready you can begin to add your fruit mixture to one half (the non buttered pieces) of your pie cut outs.

Once you’ve added all of your fruit mixture you can take each buttered cutout and place it on top of each fruit covered cutout. Make sure the buttered side is face up so that it will brown slightly in the oven. Next, use a fork to press the two cutouts together around the edges and make a small “X” on the top of your pie to allow heat to escape (unless you want what I like to call “bleeding heart” pies).

Bake at 350 for about ten to fifteen minutes or just until the tops of the pies are slightly golden. I like to serve these hot with vanilla bean ice cream! These are a great quick summer treat that’s easy to substitute different fruits depending on what’s available or if you’re feeling adventurous try adding brown sugar, caramel or chocolate to one of your fruit mixtures!

If you decide to give these a try please comment below and let me know how it went! Do you guys have any easy dessert recipes you swear by?

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